2022 was the first season the Cleveland Baseball Team played under the Guardians moniker. They had the youngest roster in MLB. They had the third lowest payroll in baseball. …and they won the AL Central. Terry Franconia took home his third Manager of the Year award. Steven Kwan finished third in Rookie of the Year voting while helping fill the perennial void the team has had in the outfield. As usual for them, they primarily got by with pitching and Jose Ramirez. They got hot in September, beat the Rays in the wild card round…and got eliminated by the Yankees. In the wild card round, they won a 15-inning marathon game with a walk-off home run to win 1-0, the first postseason game ever that was still scoreless after 14 innings.
Being such a young team, they don’t have a lot of free agents. However, two of them are both their catchers, so that position will have to be watched. Terry Francona has 1874 career wins as a manager; if he keeps going, he will certainly reach 2000 in 2024. He has missed time due to health issues, so it’s not a given that he does stick around. He will some day be in the Hall of Fame either way.
Fan Interference 